China has abandoned its zero-COVID policy, has opened borders with Hong Kong and relaxed quarantine rules for foreign travellers. AP
In December, Chinese pop singer Jane Zhang deliberately infected herself with the coronavirus. It created a furore as the country continues to battle the surge in infections. But Zhang is not alone. It turns out many young Chinese are self-infecting.
Zhang met “sheep”, a term used for virus carriers in the mainland, toward the end of December so that she would not miss her New Year’s concert. Chinese millennials and zoomers have similar reasons. The 40-day period of the Lunar New Year travel is around and as China has done away with its stringent zero-COVID policy after three years, many don’t want to miss out.
Vexed by the lack of medical services in the country, the youth is reportedly ignoring all health warnings and going out to invite infections. Many believe that if they get infected and are quarantined at home for 14 days, they will get immunity from the virus.
Also read: Explained: Are Chinese vaccines to blame for its COVID-19 surge?
‘Infecting self, saving holiday plans’
A coder from Shanghai, who has not been vaccinated, told the BBC that he exposed himself to the virus out of choice. The 27-year-old said that if he intentionally controlled the time he could infected so that it would not affect his holiday plans.
Another 26-year-old Shanghai resident also visited her friend who had tested positive “so that I could get COVID as well”, reports the BBC. However, she confessed that the recovery has not been easy. “I thought it would be like getting a cold but it was much more painful.”
Some are paying the price for exposing themselves to the virus. Thousands are getting infected with many developing unexpected complications. This doesn’t bode well for a nation whose health infrastructure is already overburdened.
China did not vaccinate a large part of its older generation first. After suddenly abandoning all restrictions, they remain vulnerable. While the country offered vaccinations to the elderly since April 2021, the take-up rate slowed noticeably this year.
“Concerns about safety and the lack of effectiveness probably are the major reasons why older adults refuse or delay vaccination,” Florence Zhang, a researcher at the School of Medicine at China’s Jinan University, who has conducted studies into vaccine hesitancy among China’s elderly told Reuters.
Also read: How Chinese celebrity deaths expose its big lie about COVID toll
Overburdened health infrastructure
But as the vulnerable get infected, they are finding it difficult to get the necessary care as hospitals are running out of beds. Patients, most of them elderly, are lying on stretchers in hallways and taking oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs in Beijing, according to a report by The Associated Press (AP).
China’s elderly population remains vulnerable as COVID-19 cases surge in the country. AP
The Chuiyangliu hospital in the capital was packed with newly arrived patients and ran out of beds by mid-morning last Thursday, even as ambulances continued to bring in those in need of medical attention. Hard-pressed nurses and doctors rushed to take information and triage the most urgent cases, the agency reports.
In Shanghai, the situation is no different. The internet is flooded with videos of packed hospitals with patients being treated outside emergency departments on the road.
A majority of the patients are left to their options outside of the government health apparatus. Millions do not have access to medicine, oxygen, respiratory machines or other medical equipment. The only thing they access is a medical drip.
Amid all this, it doesn’t help that the young are being reckless.
Also read: China is reopening after 3 years: Who can visit the country? What are the restrictions?
Vaccine hesitancy
Chinese people in general are not too enthused about taking China-made vaccines. They suspect the vaccines hardly work and result in immunity levels. Foreign vaccines are available in the black market but ordinary citizens cannot afford the high prices, The HK Post reported.
The Chinese government is unprepared as the situation spirals. Moreover, there is no clarity on the number of infections in the country.
The WHO continues to urge China to share more COVID-related data. China is most certainly doing their own sampling studies but just not sharing them, Ray Yip, who founded the US Centres for Disease Control office in China, told AP.
Even as China opens borders with Hong Kong, experts warn that more COVID-19 waves might hit the country. AP
More waves coming
Almost 250 million people in China may have caught COVID-19 in the first 20 days of December, according to an internal estimate from the nation’s top health officials, The Financial Times reported last month. And there is no sign of cases dropping.
A report published in The Guardian on Monday said that almost 90 per cent of people in China’s third populous province have been infected. Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, told a press conference that “as of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89 per cent”. It has a population of 99.4 million of which 88.5 million may have been infected.
China is reporting zero or single-digit deaths. But there are long queues outside crematoriums, satellite imagery shared by Damien Symon, a geospatial intelligence researcher at the Intel Lab, shows.
Meanwhile, health experts have predicted three winter waves in China. Epidemiologist Wu Zunyou told the BBC that he believes the December spike in infections would run until mid-January, while the second wave would then be triggered by mass travel in January around the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations which begin on 21 January.With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.